How Did We Get Here?
by paigenumber
Summary: When Rosie wakes up in the middle of the forest in the dead of night, things begin to not add up. Like why was she in the forest? Why didn't she remember anything past her sixth year? Where were the Marauders? How did she end up here? All those questions ran circles around her mind. Does Rosie really want answers to all those questions? Or will the answers be too hard to face?
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter one; **_

_**Author's note; So I said I'd do it, and here it is guys. I hope you enjoy and I know the first chapter's kinda short...the rest will be longer :) **_

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Waking up took a hell of a lot of effort, taking in the fact that Rosie could barely move any of her muscles. Her eyes fluttered open and she found herself looking around at the forest, the dirt and leaves damp against her body. It looked to be nightfall, the only light coming from the full moon hanging above the sky. The sky and stars looked like glitter had been haphazardly thrown over black fabric, and it intrigued her. Although the intrigue was there, confusion instantly filled her. Where the hell was she? What the hell was she doing there? With a tremendous amount of pain, she was able to push herself into a sitting position and fully take in her surrounding.

She was in a clearing, in what seemed to be a forest. The trees were huge and looming, covering in what seemed to be moss that was damp from the light shower falling over her. Rosie mentally kicked herself. How could she have not noticed that?

Her hands began feeling the ground around her, looking for anything that could explain where she was. She found only damp leaves, dirt and a mixture of plants. Yet, as her fingers dug deeper into the foliage, she found a wand. Just by letting her fingers trail along the smooth woods bumpy exterior, she pinpointed it must've been her wand.

"Lumos." She muttered and winced at how hoarse and scratchy her voice seemed, almost as if two stones were being grinded together in her throat. Instantly, the tip of the wand lit up, putting a faint, blue-ish hue on the part of the forest that she was still sitting.

A prickling of déjà-vu came over her and she slowly hefted herself onto her feet, something in the distant darkness catching her eyes. The Qudditch pitch. Rosie turned a bit to the left and saw the large shadowy castle, the lights making it welcoming.  
The Forbidden Forest.

Rosie was in the Forbidden Forest and she had absolutely no idea how she got there. She brought her left hand to her forehead to push her long, messy hair from her eyes but instead her fingers came back sticky with blood. What the hell had happened to her? The last thing she remembered was baking peanut butter and chocolate chip biscuits with her older brothers on the farm. So how'd she get here? At Hogwarts? Especially in the Forbidden Forest?

It took her a few moments, but Rosie began to walk toward what seemed like the entrance of the forest, her right hand holding onto her wand tightly. It was the only thing that seemed familiar to her in that moment of time. Not to mention her faded jeans and red and black plaid shirt. They were familiar. Like she'd been wearing them before she got here and ended up covered from head to toe in mud and foliage. Yippee.

As she stumbled, Rosie grabbed onto a tree to keep her balance. She was definitely not scared; she'd never been scared of the forest. Okay, that may be a lie, but she wasn't scared of the forest _anymore. _Rosie didn't have time to be, not when she was best mates with the Marauders. Speaking of the Marauders…where were they? She knew for certain Sirius wouldn't just let her wander in the forest alone, especially since no one ever knew what was really hidden in the forest. She heard undergrowth and footsteps and she quickened her pace. She was confused and bloody exhausted for some reasons and wasn't exactly up for a fight with a creature from the forest, especially when she was in it's element.

When she'd finally stumbled her way out of the forest, she gave a happy yell, accompanied by a jump. Rosie could swear that the last few minutes spent in there someone had been following her and they hadn't even made an effort to keep quiet about it. Rosie stretched and tucked her wand behind her ear, making a mental note to wash her dirty, undergrowth filled hair. Rosie dug her hands into her pocket and began making her way back up to the castle, completely oblivious to everything happening around her.

The full moon.

Hagird's hut.

The way the night was so eerily quiet and unmoving.

She didn't notice it all as her mind struggled to fill in the continuous blanks in her memories. One of her hands made its way up to her temple, where she'd felt the blood earlier and a frown settled onto her face. Maybe that's why she'd lost her memory. Maybe everything was fine and Sirius and James were up in the common room joking about Slytherins and pygmy puffs.

If she'd been paying attention she would've noticed the big man coming up behind her, clutching a pink umbrella with a terrific dog at his heels and she also would've noticed that the last time she'd seen the Whomping Willow, it hadn't been that big or developed. She would've noticed slight changes, the way the forest looked, how things seemed to have less of a happier vibe. But she didn't notice any of it, nor did she notice the pale scars reflecting the slight light from her wand. The scars that spelled out the words "Filthy Mudblood" over and over. Nor did she recognize the memory that accompanied those scars or the people intertwined with those memories.


	2. Chapter 2

**A hand reached out and touched her on the shoulder, causing Rosie to scream and abruptly turn around, her wand at the ready. What she saw surprised her. It wasn't a death eater, but a kind, familiar ,bearded face with eyes that twinkled in the moonlight. Behind him was a dog that she SHOULD have recognize, but she didn't. That didn't mean Fang didn't recognize her,because he pounced into the girl, cleanly knocking her to the ground,stopping Rosie from saying what she was about to say. He the preceded to lick her face, his tail waging back and forth like she was the most important person in the world to him. And she was. Or had been. **

Rosie, underneath the ecstatic dog, laughed and rubbed her hands over his slightly damp cost, momentarily forgetting about all the confusion she'd just faced. After a few moments, Fang finally became tired of licking her face and allowed her to sit, upon an unspoken condition that stated that he would be allowed to lie on her lap.

A grin plaster on her face, Rosie looked up at Rubeus Hagrid, Hogwart's gamekeeper. "Hagrid! I didn't know you had a dog! Did you get him over Summer?" she couldn't understand why Hagrid looked so...so scared or why he was clutching that pink umbrella do tightly his knuckles had turned white.

"Rosie! I understand that I showed you the thestrals but that doesn't mean you need to 'aunt me." Haunt? How in Merlin's name was she meant to haunt him?! She wasn't dead.

"Haunt, Hagrid? Are you okay?" The man looked startled to see that she'd replied so easily and put his hand down to help pull her to her feet. Rosie gently pushed the dog off her lap and took Hagrid's hand, allowing him to pull her to her feet. He looked even more frightened.

"Rosie...'ow're you 'ere? You're dead and has been for the last twelve years."

Dead. She was dead!?

"Hagrid I don't understand." Cried Rosie in absolute confusion. "I'm not dead! I-I'm right here! I don't know how I ended up in the forest and I just want to head back up to my dorm and be with James , Sirius and Remus!" A slight sob accompanied her answer but she reigned it in. Hagrid was kidding, yeah, that was what it was. Clearly she wasn't dead. She turned and analyzed Hagrid closely. He looked...older...and so did the Whomping Willow in the background, as if it'd grown over the course of many years. No. No. It couldn't be possible.

Hagrid looked at her with absolute concern in his eyes. "Rosie...I don't know what 'append to ya, but Dumbledore will."

The dog, who's name she still didn't know, pressed itself up against her leg and whined so Rosie bent down and gently scratched his head. Her eyes were blank and her face was pulled into a confused expression as Hagrid carefully took one of her arms and started leading her towards the castle.

To distract herself, she asked. "So, when'd you get the dog Hagrid?" Hagrid looked a bit startled for a moment, before he answered her anyway. It'd looked as if he'd been considering not answering her question but had suddenly thought better of it. "You gave 'im to me, Rosie. A few days after you gave birth to Belle."

Birth!? She had a dog!?

Rosie felt like someone had reached inside her brain and was slowly crushing it, causing her to be even more confused. "I-I had a baby? A dog?"

Hagrid looked at her, his eyes filled with sadness and he nodded. "You 'ad two babies, Rosie. They, they were killed with ya. And Fang. You and Sirius 'ad him before the baby."

Oh it was just getting weirder and weirder, but Rosie felt something in her heart break and she fell to her knees, sobbing. It wasn't as if she knew those two children, well, it seemed like she didn't. But her heart recognised it and she was filled with the grief a mother would be filled with to hear her children had been killed.

Hagrid seemed to decide she was in no form to move, so he very carefully scooped her into his arms. She felt so small and fragile in his arms, like she was a newborn child. She was currently crying like a newborn child. He hurried up to the castle, through the Entrance Hall and made his way up to Dumbledore's office. As they moved, Rosie caught a glimpse of James, well she thought it was James but he looked different somehow and was accompanied with two people who she'd never seen before. One had red hair and a bucketload of freckles and the other had big teeth and bushy hair, a book clutched under her arm.

"Miss Hunter, let me say, it is an absolute pleasure to see you again. I must say, a lot of people have missed that smile of yours." Professor Dumbledore hadn't changed. His beard was still white and flowing, his nose still crooked from being broken more than once and his blue eyes still twinkled through his half moon glasses. Rosie was curled up in a chair in his enormous office, her arms hugging her knees to her chest. It was a coping mechanism. It made her feel like everything was still held together, not falling apart like she felt it was.

"Professor...please tell me what is going on." She begged, her voice breaking from tears that she still hadn't finished shedding over her two children, the children she hadn't known. Dumbledore stopped his pacing abruptly and looked at the girl. She noticed pity in his eyes and quickly looked down at her knees. "The whole truth Miss Hunter? Or would you prefer the easier truth?" His voice was soft and full of sadness.

"The whole truth, Professor. I know that much." She said back and began gently gnawing on her lower lip. Professor Dumbledore leant back on his desk with a sigh and pulled out his pensieve. Slowly, he tipped out a bottle of memories into the swirling pool and gestured for Rosie to step forward and dive into a past, future, a life she couldn't remember.


	3. Chapter 3

Rosie staggered away from the pensieve, shaking her head from side to side in absolute disbelief. "No. No there's been a mistake! I...this is all a prank, isn't it? Sirius set it up!" Dumbledore only looked at her sadly and gently took her hand. "Rosie. Please calm down. That is only your seventh year of Hogwarts. You get married. Have children. A dog." She shook her head and wiped at the tears falling there, staring at the moisture collected on her hand as if she couldn't believe she'd been crying. "You just told me that...that my two best friends are dead and my h-husband is in Azkaban! How can you expect me to calm down, professor!? I don't want to be here!" Rosie grabbed a book off of Dumbledore's desk and flung it across the room, causing one of the figurines there to shatter. Dumbledore seemed unfazed, which caused her to wonder how many people broke his belongs. "

Rosie. Listen. I understand that this must be horrific for you, but you have another chance at life! And Sirius broke out of Azkaban." Rosie couldn't help but bitterly laugh on her mind. Only Sirius Black could successfully break out of Azkaban. She still couldn't believe that she and Sirius had dated, let alone gotten married and had two children, Belle and Hedley. But she remembered that she did fancy Sirius and had for quite a while.

Finally, Rosie broke down, wiping at the tears leaving streaks in the dirt and blood on her face.

"How did I get here! I want to go home!" Dumbledore moved the pensieve back to its home and storied Fawks the pheonix's head. "Didn't you hear me? I want to go home!" She absolutely hated being ignored. Finally, Dumbledore spoke softly, his tone blank. "You don't have a home. Rosie, you're meant to be dead." She felt like she'd been slapped and heavily sat down in the chair across from his desk. "So what do you suppose I do, then? If I have no home."

He considered, moving back to sit at his desk and peer over at her. "I suggest, we get you back into classes. Have you complete your seventh year and then you can choose the path you wanted from there. I also suggest that you forget that you had a life before this, Rosie. It would be for the best." She nodded stiffly and pointed at the sorting hat. "Are you going to re-sort me, or just let me go back to Gryffindor?" Dumbledore grinned and clapped his hands. "Well, miss Hunter, a new beginning deserves a new chance." He walked over to the shelf where he kept the sorting hat and brought it over to her, placing it over her head. The hat began to speak into her ear softly, so only she could hear him.

"Well, well, I've seen this mind before. A long time ago. Brave. Compassionate. Wild like fire. Well, it has to be Gryffindor." The hat called out Gryffindor, not as loud as Rosie was used to but she guessed that was because they were in Dumbledore's office. She pulled the hat off and passed it to the Headmaster. "That's not exactly a new start, but I'm okay with it. Do I still go by my name Professor, or should we go by a different one?"

Rosie allowed her eyes to flicker back to the man and she watched him closely. Finally, he said. "Perhaps you should go by another name. Belle, perhaps?" Rosie just nodded. Belle wasn't that bad of a name and she guessed she could still use her surname. "Can I go now, sir?" The man nodded and Rosie moved to leave. Just as she was about to close the door behind her, he called out. "And the password for Gryffindor tower is amortentia." She nodded, repeated the password in her head and began to make her way back to the tower, exceptionally happy that the castle hadn't changed much, barely at all.

As she was walking up to the tower a professor- she assumed it was a professor by how old he looked- stopped her. "Where do you think you're going at this hour?" The professor drawled, his hair black and greasy and his eyes were small and beady. There was something awfully familiar about him, although she couldn't put her finger on it. "I was just with the Headmaster." Rosie replied, digging her hands into her front pockets and rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. He only narrowed his eyes, the whole time they never moved off her. "What is your name? And house?" Rosie answered without thinking. "Rosie Hunter. Gryffindor." The man looked like he'd seen a ghost and Rosie put a hand to her mouth as she gasped. Whoops. She was meant to be Belle Hunter. Oh well, that opportunity had definitely sailed.

"Rosie Hunter is dead. What joke are you playing at, girl?" He hissed, baring his yellowed teeth at her. Rosie wrinkled her nose and stood her ground. "I am not playing at anything, Professor. I just want to return to Gryffindor tower."

The man looked like he was about to make a retort, but then another voice broke in, "Severus, let the girl return to her common room. She was with Albus." In came a VERY familiar man. He looked thin and aged, grey streaking his brown hair but his smile and eyes were the same. Remus Lupin. Severus? Severus Snape? No... It couldn't be. He'd recognized her. Of course he had.

"Remus, leave this. I was the one who found the girl and I will properly punish her." Remus turned to tell Rosie she could go and his eyes widened, and he paled. Would that be the response she received from everyone, from now on?! "Just go, miss." Rosie nodded and hurried off, basically running back to the tower so that she wouldn't be faced with any more awkward meetings.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four;

As soon as the girl had gone, Remus looked at Severus and found the exact same expression gracing his face. Rosie Hunter was meant to be dead. That also couldn't be her daughter because they'd found the little girl dead on the floor of the Department of Mysteries. So if Rosie and her daughter were dead...who was that girl? She looked, acted and spoke exactly like Rosie but she couldn't have been her. Could it?

Before all his thoughts could correctly order themselves, Remus was tearing down the corridors, taking as many secret passageways as he could to shorten his trip, all the way to Dumbledore's study. If she'd just been with him, he'd had some idea what had happened to her. Or who this young woman was. But Remus couldn't help but remember how the faint light had reflected off something on her right arm...the exact way the light would sometimes reflect off of the scars covering Rosie's arm.

He knocked loudly on the door to Dumbledore's office, his breathing heavy. He needed answers and he needed them now. Relief washed over him completely when he heard the familiar voice from the other side call him into the office. "Come in, Remus."

A slight shiver went through him. He absolutely hated when he did that. It creeped him out just the slightest bit. Remus opened the door and let himself into the office. Inside the circular room, sat behind the desk was Albus Dumbledore, his face thoughtful as he stroked Fawkes the phoenix. Standing in front of him, in her floral dressing gown and slippers was Minerva McGonagall. Dumbledore took one look at Remus and sighed.

"So, I take it you've ran into her already?"

His only response was a nod as he looked at the headmaster in bewilderment, not physically able to say anything until Dumbledore ejected some sense into his jumbled brain.

Another sigh followed the first and he gestured to the two chairs in front of the large desk. "Take a seat. I was just about to inform Minerva on the situation of our ol...new student."

Remus didn't laugh as he and Minerva made their way to the chairs and made the selves comfortable. He understood that Dumbledore as trying to be funny, but it was not funny. Nor would it be in any situation. Minerva looked exceptionally confused and Remus guessed in that moment that he was okay with knowing, even though he wasn't okay with how he'd found out.

"New student, what new student, Albus?" She asked as she sat down, her fingers fiddling with the clasp of her dressing gown.

"A new student joined us tonight, Professor McGonagall. A young witch by the name of Rosie Hunter." Remus saw the witch freeze beside him and the expression on her face clearly read that if Albus was joking, the joke was nowhere near funny. He had to remember that McGonagall had taught Rosie- if this was the same Rosie- all the way through her Hogwarts education.

"Albus! That isn't funny! What a harsh joke!? You should know better than to bring up the poor dead girl." Remus flinched, she was dead. Of course she was...but that girl looked so real, so much like the Rosie he'd fallen for during his third year.

Professor Dumbledore looked unfazed as his eyes switched to Professor McGonagall's.

"Minerva. Tonight odd things have been happening. Hagrid found a young girl just outside the forest, apparently she looked a fair sight. She knew nothing about where she'd come from, only that she thought she would be just beginning her seventh year." He tapped his fingers on the desk as he continued to explain. "It was rather peculiar. She looked, acted, remembered the same things Miss Hunter would've if asked when she'd just begun her seventh year, but she didn't remember anything past. Not her life with Mister Black," Minerva's eyes grew hard, her mouth in a tight line. Sirius Black was not a common subject that usually ended well. "not even those scars on her arm. But they're there. It was rather curious, to see her reaction to the life that was hers but isn't." His voice grew slightly thoughtful and Remus wanted to jump across the desk and shake the man until he gave him the answers he wanted, instead of a whole bunch of jumbled thoughts that didn't answer his main question.

Is that girl really Rosie? And if it was really Rosie, how is she suddenly seventeen year old Rosie and not the grown woman who had fallen into the veil?

Rosie's POV;

The way up to Gryffindor tower was the same and she found herself enjoying the familiar walk. Everything else had been so nuts lately and she'd felt like banging her head against a wall. Or some of the people who'd been making her feel how she was. The Fat Lady was exactly the same and she happily said the password and the portrait opened. Rosie stepped in gingerly, her eyes moving from side to side as she tried to figure out if the common room looked the same. Then she saw James. He looked slightly younger but a rush of warmth filled her and absolute relief. She ran to him and hugged him tightly, yet he didn't hug her back. "James!" She cried happily, but he stilly didn't hug her back, like he didn't even recognize her. That was odd because usually James would hug her back, probably swing her around. It was like, seeing James, made her believe that everything that had just happened had been a trick.

That was until a boy with red hair and freckles everywhere pulled her off James and looked at her angrily.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're playing at!?" The red headed boy snapped, his eyes scanning hers as she shrunk back. It hadn't all been a trick...so if that wasn't James...that was...that was Harry.

"I'm so sorry! I wasn't playing at anything, honestly. Everything has just been a bit crazy lately..." The boy still looked angry and a girl with bushy hair was leading Harry away. But Rosie ducked away from the red-headed boy and ran after him. "Harry! Harry wait! I knew your parents!"

The boy stopped in his tracks and turned around to face her slowly. He had Lily's eyes, those big green eyes. But everything else, he was a complete clone of James. Her James.

"What do you mean, you knew my parents?" Harry asked softly, as if he didn't believe her and thought she was pulling his leg. But there was hope there, hidden in the eyes that Lily had.

Rosie took a deep breath and started to explain, under the impression that she sounded completely nuts to the group. "I...I went to school with them."

The hope vanished and the boy with the red hair grabbed her and said softly. "Don't you dare come back near us. Are we clear? If you do, there will be consequences." She nodded numbly and walked off, making her way to the seventh year dorm. She felt horrific. Like no one she talked to would believe her, let alone her best friend's child.


End file.
